The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-04-20

How SpurgeOn Found Christ.

had been for about five years in
most fearful distress of mind, as lad.
If any human being felt more of the
terror of Gods law, L can indeed pity
and sympathize with him. Bunyan's
"Grace Astounding" contains, in the
main, my history. Some abysses he
went into I never trod; but some into
which 1 plunged he seems to have
never known.
thought the sun was blotted out of
my sky--that l had so sinned against
God that there was no hope for me. I
prayed-the Lord knoweth how I
prayed; but never had the glimpse
of an answer that knew of. search
ed the Word of God; the promises
were more alarming than the threaten
ings. 1 read the privileges of the peo-
pie of God, but with the fullest per-
suasion that they were not for me.
The secret of my distress was this:
did not know the Gospel. I was in a
Christian land, had Christian parents,
but did not fully understand the free
ness and simplicity of the Gospel.
attended all the places of worship
in the town where I lived, but hon
estly do believe 1 did not hear the Cos
pei fully preached. I do not blame
the men, however. One man preach
ed the divine sovereignty. I could
hear him with pleasure; but what was
that to the poor sinner who wished to
know what he should do to be saved ?
There was another admirable man
who always preached about the law ;
but what was the use of ploughing up
ground that wanted to be soWn? An
other was great practical preacher.
l heard him, but it was very much
like q commanding officer teaching
the maneuvers Of war to set of men
without feet. What could 1 do? All
his exhortations were lost on me. /
knew it was said, "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved;" but did not know what it
was to believe in Christ.
I sometimes think L might have
been in darkness and despair now,
had it not been for the goodness of
God in sending snow-storm one Sun
day morning, when I was going to a
place of worship. When l could 60
no further, I turned down a court and
came to little Primitive Methodist
chapel. In that chapel there might
have been dozen or fifteen people.
The minister did not come that morn
ing; showed up, suppose. A poor
mana shoemaker, tailor, or some
thing of that sort--went up into the
pulpit to preach.
Now, it is we'll that ministers should
be instructed; but this man was real
ly stupid, as you would say. He was
obliged to stick to his text, for the sim
Pile reason he had nothing else to say.
The text was, "Look unto me, and be
We saved, all the ends of the earth. "
He did not even pronounce the words
rightly, but that did not matter.
There was, thought, glympse Of
hope for me in the text. He began
thus: MY dear friends, this is very
simple text indeed. It says Look.
Now, that does not require a great deal
of effort. You may be the biggest
fool, and yet you can look. A man
need not be worth thousand year.to
look. Any one can look; a clild can
look. Then it says, Look unto me-
Ay," said he, in broad Essex, "many
of you are looking to yourselves. No
use looking there. You'll never find
comfort in yourselves. Some look to
God the Father. No; look to him by
and-by. Jesus Christ says, Look un-
to me- Some of you say, I must wait
the Spirits working You have no
business with that just now. Look to
Christ. 1t runs, Look unto me-
Then the good man followed up his
text in this way: "Look unto me: I
am sweating great drops of blood.
Look unto me: 1 am hanging on the
cross. Look; I am dead and buried.
Look unto me; I rise again. Look
unto me; I ascend; am sitting at
the Fathers right hand. Oh, look to
me! look to mew When he had got
about that length and managed to spin
out ten minutes or so, he was at the
end of his teter. Then he looked at
me under the gallery, and dare say,
with so few present, he knew me to he
a stranger. He then said, Young
man, you look very miserable" Well,
I did; but had not been accustomed
to have remarks made on my personal
appearance from the pulpit before.
However, it was good blow struck.
He continued: And you will always
be miserable-miserable in life and
miserable in death-if you do not obey
my text. But if you obey now, this
moment will you be saved.
Then he shouted as only Primitive
Methodist can, Young man, look to
Jesus Christi" There and then the
cloud was gone, the darkness had roll
ed away, and that moment L saw the
sun; and could have risen that mo-
ment and sung with the most enthusi.
astic of them, of the precious blood OF
Christ, and the simple faith which
looks alone to Him. Oh, that some
body had told me that before: Trust
Christ and you shall be saved: Itwas,
no doubt, wisely ordered, and l must
ever say:
"E'er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy wounds supplied for me-,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall forever be-"
THIN THEoLoGY.-When Robert
Hall aimed at a thing, he always hit 1t